This invention relates to systems for anchoring a watercraft, for example, a boat, in shallow waters, such as near a shore line. The new anchor system has a ground penetrating element attached to an elongated rod for positioning the penetrating element in the bottom or underwater surface structure at a desired anchoring location.
Generally anchor systems for watercraft include a rope or chain with a metal anchor having arms, grapnel elements or mushroom disks that may be dropped in the water to sink to the bottom of a body of water. The anchor may be designed to catch on objects on the bottom or to resist dragging on the underwater ground material, for example a mud bottom of a lake or river. While easy to deploy, this type of anchor system may generally be unreliable in maintaining an anchoring in a desired location due to the bottom conditions. The anchor may therefore move due to wave wash against an anchored boat or for other reasons such as wind.
For permanent moorings often found in small boat harbors, a buoy tethered on a cable or chain may have a bottom embedded device that resists movement. Installing such generally permanent buoys may be a complicated operation and not be generally useful for a temporary mooring system for boat users who only wish to moor a boat for a short period of time at random locations such as adjacent a river or lake bank.